Electric guitar



July 15, 1969 TSUNEKAZU TERANISHI ET AL 3, 5

ELECTRIC GUITAR Filed Oct. 4, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 J9 J8 J7 J6 35TSUNEKAZU TERANISHI ET AL 3,456,063

July 15, 1969 ELECTRIC GUITAR 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 4'. 1966 y1969 TSUNEKAZU TERANISHI ET AL 3,456,063

ELECTRIC GUITAR 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Oct. 4, 1966 United States PatentOffice US. Cl. 841.16 12 Claims The present invention relates to anelectric guitar which is basically an ordinary solid guitar and iscombined with various elements for making it possible to obtain variousmusical instrumental tones such as of acoustic guitars, gut guitars,shamisens, banjos and the like.

According to the present invention, a solid guitar comprising a mainbody having at its upper surface a number of steel strings, a bridgesupporting said strings, a guitar mike positioned near said bridge andfacing said strings and an external output terminal connected to theoutput side of said mike is provided with a damper facing said strings,a first switching mechanism for switching said damper to a positionwhere the same is in contact wtih said strings and a position where thesame is separated therefrom, a number of electric filters connected tothe output side of said mike, and a second switching mechanism forselectively switching any one of said filters into an operativecondition.

According to a second feature of the invention, the first and secondswitching mechanisms are arranged to move together. According to a thirdfeature of the invention, at least one additional mike facing saidstrings and a number of electric filters connected to the output side ofsaid additional mike are provided, and any one of said filters isselected to be operative by said second switching mechanism.

According to a fourth feature of the invention, an upper surface plateof the guitar main body is formed, at least at a portion thereof beingdisposed below the bridge in a vibrating plate. According to a fifthfeature of the invention, there is provided another mike for taking out,as an electric signal, the vibration of said vibrating plate or that ofa vibrating film connected through a frame to said vibrating plate, andthis mike is switched from said first and second mikes by the secondswitching mechanism so as to be operative.

According to a sixth feature of the invention, a preamplifier circuitconnected to the output side of the filter circuit is provided withinthe guitar main body. In this case, a battery can be used as an electricsource for said amplifier circuit, and additionally in this case, theoutput terminal may be formed as a jack so that the battery circuit maybe closed and opened by a plug which is inserted into or pulled out ofsaid jack.

Thus the guitar of the present invention can be used as is as a solidguitar and can also be used to obtain various musical instrument tonessuch as those of an acoustic guitar, a gut guitar, a shamisen, a banjoand the like.

One embodiment of the present invention will next be explained withreference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a guitar according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a plan View of the same with its right and left upper coversbeing removed therefrom;

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-4H in FIG. 2;

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in FIG. 1;

Patented July 15, 1969 FIGURE 5 is a schematic perspective view of aswitching mchanis-m portion of the guitar; and

FIGURE 6 is an electric circuit diagram of the same.

Numeral 1 denotes a guitar main body having a neck portion 2 extendingintegrally therefrom. The main body 1 is provided at its upper surfacewith a number of steel strings 3, a bridge 4 supporting the same frombelow near the bottom end thereof. A guitar mike 5 is positioned nearthe bridge 4 facing the strings and an external output terminal 6 ofjack type is connected to the output side of the mike 5, so that aguitar amplifier 7 separately arranged at the exterior may be connectedthereto by a plug 9 at one end of a lead wire 8, which plug is insertedinto said terminal 6. The above is not different in construction fromknown conventional solid guitars.

According to the present invention, the guitar is combined with variouselements so that the same may be used not only as a solid guitar, butalso to obtain tones of acoustic guitars, gut guitars, sha-misens orbanjos. The manner of this composition will next be explained in detail.

An upper surface plate 10 of the main body 1 is formed at ts two sideportions in the form of detachable covers 11 and 12, and there areformed herewith the same hollowed chambers 13 and 14 respectively.Within side chamber 14, there are contained a first switching mechanism15, a second switching mechanism 16 and a common shaft 17 to move themtogether, so that by a turning of the shaft 17 by means of a knob 18attached to the top end thereof, the switching mechanisms 15 and 16 maybe swtiched to a first position No. 1 for a shamisen, a second positionNo. 2 for a gut guitar, a third position No. 3 for an acoustic guitar, afourth position No. 4 for a solid guitar or a fifth position No. 5 for abanjo.

The first switching mechanism 15 comprises, as shown in FIG. 5, arotatable cam which serves to controllably switch a vibration absorptiondamper 19 facing the strings 3 between a position where the same is incontact with the strings or in a position where the damper is separatedtherefrom. The damper 19 is made of vibration absorption material suchas a foamed polyurethane resin or the like and has, as shown in FIG. 4,a base plate 20 fixed to the bottom surface thereof. Plate 20 isadjustably supported for upwards and downwards displacement on asupporting frame 23 by means of a pair of adjusting screws 21 andsprings 22. The supporting frame 23 is extended at one end portion 24into the chamber 13, where it is supported by a pin 25 and a spring 26.Frame 23 is extended at its other end 27 into the other chamber 14 forbeing engaged by the lower cam surface 28 of the cam 15.

The cam surface 28 comprises an upper step 28a corresponding to thefirst and second positions No. 1 and No. 2 mentioned above and a lowerstep 28b corresponding to the above-mentioned third to fifth positions,No. 3 to No. 5, so that when the cam 15 is turned to the first andsecond positions, No. 1 and No. 2, the supporting frame 23, and thus thedamper 19, is not pushed thereby and is moved upwards by the spring 26to be in an operative position where the damper is in contact, underpressure, with the strings 3. At the third to fifth positions, No. 3,No. 4 and No. 5, however, the supporting frame 23 and thus the damper 19is pushed downwards to be in an inoperative position separated from thestrings 3.

The damper 19, when brought into contact under pressure with the strings3, serves to absorb the vibrations of the strings 3 and shorten thedamping time of the free vibrations thereof so that the same isespecially effective for obtaining tones of shamisens or gut guitars.The contact position and the contact length of the same with the stringsinfluences the operation thereof, and a good result is obtained when, asone example, the damper is provided at a position 2 to 3 cms. from thebridge 4 to extend over about 1 to 1.5 cms. in length of the strings.The strength of the contact pressure thereof against the strings 3 alsohas an influence, and this can be adjusted by the screw 21.

The second switching mechanism 16 is a multiple stage electric switch(FIG. comprising one movable contact 29 and five stationary contacts 30,31, 32, 33 and 34. The movable contact 29 is connected to the externaloutput terminal 6. A first filter 35 for a shamisen, a second filter 36for a gut guitar, a third filter 37 for an acoustic guitar, a fourthfilter 38 for a solid guitar and a fifth filter 39 for a banjo areconnected, respectively, to the stationary contacts 30, 31, 32, 33 and34. The input sides of the first and fourth filters 35 and 38 areconnected to the output side of the above-mentioned guitar mike 5.

In this arrangement, if the shaft 17 of the switching mechanism and 16is switched to the fourth position No. 4, the damper 9 is separated fromthe strings 3 to be inoperative and the fourth filter 38 is selected tobe operative so that the instrument can be used as a solid guitar. If,then, the shaft 17 is changed to the first position No. 1, the damper 19is brought into contact with the strings 3 for dampening the vibrationthereof and the first filter becomes operative so that a tone similar tothat of a shamisen can be obtained.

A second guitar mike 40 facing the strings 3 is provided at a positionwhere it is separated from the bridge 4. The second and the thirdfilters 36 and 37 mentioned above are connected in parallel one with theother to the output side of the same. If, with this arrangement, theswitching mechanisms 15 and 16 are switched to the second position No.2, the damper 19 is inoperative and the second filter 36 is at work sothat the tone of a gut guitar can be obtained. If the switch selects thethird position No. 3, the damper 19 becomes operative and the thirdfilter 37 is operative, so that the tone of an acoustic guitar may beobtained.

It is known that, when the vibrations of the strings 3 is picked up by aguitar mike, a hard tone rich in high frequency components is obtainedif the mike is near the bridge 4 but a soft tone rich in low frequencycomponents is obtained if the mike is moved to a position near themiddle of the strings. The guitar mike 40 is positioned at said middleso that the same is especially effective for obtaining a tone of anacousitc guitar or a gut guitar.

The upper surface 10 of the guitar main body 1 is formed at the lowersurface portion of the bridge 4 as a thin vibrating plate 41. 42 denotesa hollow chamber formed below the same. If so formed, the transmissionphenomenon and frequency characteristic of the vibrations can beutilized to obtain an acoustic guitar tone or a shamisen tone. ThisVibrating plate 41 has only a slight influence on the tone when theinstrument is used as a solid guitar, but no harm is caused thereby. Avibrating film described below, which is more effective as to transitionphenomenon and is especially effective for obtaining banjo tone. Theplate 41 is not required to have a sound emission effect so that thesame may be made comparatively small in area and, for example, a goodresult is obtained with a size of 3 mm. in thickness, 90 mm. in widthand 160 mm. in length.

Vibrating film 44 is provided below the vibrating plate 41 throguh acylindrical frame 43 as shown in FIG. 3, and there is provided acondenser type guitar mike 45, for picking up the vibration thereof asan electric signal. This mike is connected to the output side of saidfifth filter 39. By moving the shaft 17 to the fifth position No. 5, theoutput of the mike 45 is taken out through the filter 39 as a tonesimilar to that of a banjo. It is also possible, in this case, to omitvibrating film 44 in which case the vibration of plate 41 itself ispicked up by the mike 45. However, film 44 is generally more readilyvibratable than plate 41.

The guitar mike 45 comprises a movable electrode 45a (FIG. 3) fixed tothe film 44 and a stationary electrode 45b facing the same and anychange in capacity between the two electrodes 45a and 45b is convertedinto an electric signal by the use of a frequency modulation circuit 46(FIG. 6) at the output side thereof.

FIG. 6 shows an electric circuit diagram of the above instrument.Between a filter circuit A containing the first to fifth filters 35 to39 and the external output terminal 6 is interposed a pre-amplifiercircuit B serves not only to amplify the output of each filter 35 to 39but also to prevent the filters from being changed in frequencycharacteristic due to connection with the load circuit.

Numeral 47 denotes a switch for switching the preamplifier circuit Binto operative and inoperative conditions, numeral 48 (FIG. 1) is a knobtherefor, 49 is a variable resistance for volume control, 50 (FIG. 1) isa knob therefor, 51 is a variable resistance for tone control, 52(FIG. 1) is a knob therefor, 53 is a switch for switching to rhythm andsolo, and 54 (FIG. 1) is a knob for the same.

There is provided within the chamber a battery 55 as an electrical powersource for the pre-amplifier circuit B. This battery is interposedbetween a pair of terminals 6a and 6b of the jack or external outputterminal 6. The terminals 6a and 6b are short-circuited for closing thebattery circuit when the plug 9 is inserted, but the circuit isautomatically opened when the plug is pulled out. This prevents anyconsumption of battery power due to forgetting of the operation ofswitching-01f, Numeral 56 denotes a switch in series with the batteryand this switch is moved with the above-mentioned switch 47.

The instrument is used by rotating the shaft 17 of the switchingmechanism 15 and 16, whereby may be obtained the following fiveconditions.

The vibrating plate 41 is always in operative condition, and this isessential in the case of shamisen, acoustic guitar and banjo. It may,however, be inoperative in the other cases.

Thus, the present invention provides a guitar, by the combination ofvarious elements, which is not only operative as a solid guitar but alsoto obtain various tones such as those of a shamisen, gut guitar,acoustic guitar, banjo or the like.

What is claimed is:

1. An electric guitar comprising a main body having an upper surface, aplurality of steel strings on said body adjacent said surface, a bridgeon said body supporting the strings, a guitar mike on the body near thebridge and facing the strings, an output terminal connected to saidmike, a damper facing the strings, a first switching mechanism forselectively switching the damper to a position where the same is incontact with the strings and a position where the same is separated fromthe strings, a plurality of filters for filtering signals generated bysaid mike, and a second switching mechanism for selectively renderingthe filters operative.

2. An electric guitar according to claim 1 comprising means foradjusting said first and second switching mechanisms together.

3. An electric guitar according to claim 1 comprising at least oneadditional mike facing the strings, and a plurality of further filtersconnected to said additional mike, said further filters beingselectively rendered effective by the second switching mechanism.

4. An electric guitar according to claim 1 comprising, at the uppersurface of the main body at a position below the said bridge, avibrating plate.

5. An electric guitar according to claim 4 comprising a third mike forpicking up the vibration of said vibrating plate, said third mike beingrendered operative by said second switching mechanism.

6. An electric guitar according to claim 4 comprising a vibrating filmwhich is more readily vibratable than the vibrating plate, a frameconnecting said film to the vibrating plate, and a further mike forpicking up the vibration of the film as an electrical signal, the lattersaid mike being selectively rendered operative by said second switchingmechanism.

7. An electric guitar according to claim 1 comprising a pre-amplifiercircuit connected to said filters and encased in the interior of saidmain body. 7

8. An electric guitar according to claim 7 comprising a battery Which isconnected to and constitutes an electrical power source for thepre-amplifier circuit, said battery also being encased in the interiorof the main body.

9. An electric guitar according to claim 7, wherein the output terminalis in the form of an external jack connected to the battery, said guitarfurther comprising a plug and an external amplifier connected to theplug,

the battery being rendered elfective by insertion of the plug into thejack.

10. An electric guitar as claimed in claim 2, wherein said switchingmechanisms and said means are collectively constituted by a gang switchand a cam and a rod common to the gang switch and cam for simultaneouslyadjusting the same.

11. An electric guitar as claimed in claim 10 comprising a support forsaid damper, resilient means displaceably mounting said support, andmeans on the damper for engagement with and displacement by said cam.

12. An electric guitar as claimed in claim 11, wherein the cam andlatter said means are encased in said main body, the latter said meansbeing connected to said support which is located on the exterior of saidmain body.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,325,579 6/1967 Cookerly et al.84-1.16 HERMAN KARL SAALBACH, Primary Examiner M. NUSSBAUM, AssistantExaminer

1. AN ELECTRIC GUITAR COMPRISING A MAIN BODY HAVING AN UPPER SURFACE, APLURALITY OF STEEL STRINGS ON SAID BODY ADJACENT SAID SURFACE, A BRIDGEON SAID BODY SUPPORTING THE STRINGS, A GUITAR MIKE ON THE BODY NEAR THEBRIDGE AND FACING THE STRINGS, AN OUTPUT TERMINAL CONNECTED TO SAIDMIKE, A DAMPER FACING THE STRINGS, A FIRST SWITCHING MECHANISM FORSELECTIVELY SWITCHING THE DAMPER TO A POSITION